Francis Frith Photographs

Across its albums, stereographs, and albumen prints, the California Museum of Photography's collections include nearly seven hundred Francis Frith photographs. The majority of these photographs have inscriptions written on their recto (that is, the surface of the image), indicating an identification number and subject matter. These are similar to photographs collected by the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), where it is posited that the photographs were "most probably used as place-markers within [Frith & Co.]'s filing system, allowing for easy retrieval of stocks of unmounted prints."